From The Ramparts

The Empire Is In Deep Trouble

                                                          The Empire Is In Deep Trouble

                                                                 Junious Ricardo Stanton

I watched the Presidential “debate” last night, it was bad. America is in trouble. The world is either in total shock or laughing their behinds off at the display of feeble-mindedness and narcissism on all the major networks and global media.

Whew, it was bad. At several points I couldn’t help from laughing at others I felt sorry for this country even though I know we are witnessing Karma playing itself out here. The whole “debate” hype was nothing more than gaslighting and political and media theatrics, it was all sizzle, no substance.

I was watching a baseball game but turned it off to check out the “debate”. When I turned back the home team was losing and it was going into the ninth inning so I turned back to the debacle. I originally decided I wasn’t going to watch it but I changed my mind. I decided to take a peek just to see how the two men would conduct themselves and how the so called moderators would control the proceedings. We’d heard so much pre-event yakety-yak about strict adherence to the agreed upon rules, how microphones would be cut off so the candidates couldn’t go over their time limit or be able to talk over one another. This was supposedly so the “debate” wouldn’t devolve into soliloquies or personal attacks. Well so much for the rules.

First off Donald Trump never directly answered a question, not one. He went on immediate attack criticizing Biden the whole time. Even when the moderators came aback and asked him the question again he only directly answered at best one or two of their questions during the whole time! He rattled off declarations that were not fact checked and the moderators did not hold him to a standard of veracity so the whole affair was a charade. It was bad.

Joe Biden was never in the game, Trump seemed to catch him off guard early with his bombastic claims about how great he and his administration were and how pitiful Biden’s is. Biden never recovered. In fact for about a full third of the time Biden liked like a deer in the headlights, dazed, confused and his responses were what some would call sentence salad which is akin to oratorical dyslexia where the speaker’s words are jumbled or uttered in such a way they don’t make any sense. When Biden had a grasp of what he wanted to say which wasn’t often, his words never came out with conviction or authority other than the times he called Trump a liar. It was so bad that when Dana Bash asked Biden a question and he went blank or started sentence salading she either changed the subject, or turned to Trump which in effect saved Biden by the bell! Is was bad.

It was painful to watch, it was not America’s finest hour politically. The American Empire is in rapid, steep and steady decline, that so called “debate” is just another symptom of the Empire’s implosion. Not only weren’t the two major political parties’ candidates up to snuff intellectually, neither one able to discuss the issues of the hour, demonstrate their familiarity with the issues or offer solid solutions to the pressing problems this nation is facing. Not only that, they weren’t even mature enough to conduct themselves with the decorum fitting for the occasion.

Personal attacks were the order of the day. Trump jumped on Biden early and often and Biden never was able to use verbal Ju-Jitsu to make Trump look silly or incompetent. Neither candidate appeared “presidential”. Neither man’s body language exuded confidence or a sense he had the situation under control. Neither man could be called a deep thinker on that stage. Even the post “debate” commentary admitted Biden did not do well which is an understatement.

Both men resorted to childish verbal attacks on their opponent and Trump appeared to get thoroughly under Biden’s skin. Biden seemed frustrated by his own lack of mental acuity which prevented him from responding to Trump or even answering the moderators questions effectively. It was bad. It was apparent Biden was not having a good day and things never got better for him as the event went on despite what the Democratic spinmeisters said following the debacle.

Biden did not perform well but the real loser in that debacle wass the American people. That sham went out around the world and now people judge us based upon what they saw last night. It was not good. The world must be befuddled. They are asking themselves and each other, how is it possible the United States only has these two as major candidates for the highest office in the land?! Surely there must be others more adroit, articulate and knowledgeable people out there who could better represent the American people. Why wasn’t Robert Kennedy Jr allowed to participate; at least he would have presented alternative viewpoints and positions and added deeper analysis insights and solutions than these two did.

This was the earliest debate in history. The political parties have not even had their conventions or formally selected their standard bearers for the 2024 presidential election yet! Does this mean that Joe Biden and Donald Trump are the set in stone candidates for 2024? If so this puts the American people in a major conundrum, a fix of unfathomable proportions. Who do we vote for if you think the system is salvageable? Are there viable alternatives other to these two? Don’t you think we deserve better? Or is this country so far gone this is all we can get?

It’s not that the other world leaders are great statesmen and women themselves, its just that we rarely see that type of debauchery on display in other nation’s political campaigns. This is bad.

Sadly I do not think this will get better, that Joe Biden will bounce back or Donald Trump will offer serious solutions to the pressing issues facing the world today. I’m reminded of the Roman Empire during its rapid decline, it suffered a series of corrupt leaders who were unable to alter the downward trajectory of the empire until it eventually collapsed of its own corruption, decadence and hubris. Even Donald Trump kept saying the country is in bad shape. Based upon what I saw last night, he is correct.

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 12:24 PM 0 comments

The West Is Trotting Towards War

The West Is Trotting Towards War

Junious Ricardo Stanton

Several weeks ago I wrote a commentary entitled Sleepwalking Into More War which provided insights into the West’s maniacal support for the wars raging in Gaza and Ukraine. As time passed the sleepwalk is becoming a trot. Our misleadership class is accelerating the expansion of existing conflicts and opening new theaters of engagement potentially against China.

Wars unlike bar fights just don’t happen spontaneously. There is a progression, there are stages beginning with the belief war and conflict are acceptable means of resolving issues or getting what one wants. This is the mindset of the West. Since the fifteenth century the West has engaged in wholesale wanton plunder, rapine and expropriation justified by noble sounding verbiage like: spreading Christianity to the heathens, civilizing the savages, bringing freedom democracy and enlightenment to the world and similar lies.

The European movers and shakers provided emotional and material incentives and inducements to their cannon fodder to make them march or sail off towards whatever conflict, invasion or prize they coveted. Tribal and ethnic pride, religious fervor, claims of doing god’s work saving the world, making it safe for democracy or rallying the yahoos to avenge some slight or to retaliate against an attack on them were some of the tactics they used. And in many cases, the leaders pulled off a cunning false flag operation to jump start hostilities. At any rate war was already a top priority they just needed to provide a pretext and rationale to get the party started.

We are seeing the same things in Ukraine and Palestine. The US fomented a coup d’etat in Ukraine in 2014 which ultimately led to the rise of a Jewish comedian named Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the position of president five years later. Zelensky was supported by the US and Azov Battalion, Neo Nazis who were actively bombing Donetsk and Donbas regions for years because the residents there wanted to reunite with Russia who they were culturally and ethnically related to.

Ukraine was universally recognized as a corrupt nation and the Biden crime family had their grubby hands deep in the corruption. When Russia intervened at the behest of the Donbas citizens the West went ballistic. Crimea had already overwhelmingly voted to rejoin the Russian Federation but the West spun it as a forced or coerced annexation.

This was part of their ongoing Putin/Russia demonizing campaign. The US/NATO axis of insanity was pissed that Putin derailed their attempts to topple the Syrian government and do to that nation what they did to Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

In addition to imposing sanctions on Putin and Russia, which are deliberate acts of war, the Axis of Insanity set out to militarily buttress Ukraine’s clown president. But this has failed, Ukraine is loosing the war, so now the West has given the green light to their clown Zelenskyy to use Western weapons to directly attack Russian territory. The West is selling weapons, providing tactical support and “advisors” in this wasted war effort. Now Germany, Britain and the US have recently moved towards implementing universal conscription or national service programs meaning military drafts! The sleepwalk is escalating to a trot.

In Palestine Benjamin Netanyahu cavalierly and dismissively crossed Biden’s red line blatantly defying him and bum rushing Rafah, effectively thumbing his nose at Biden making him look like a punk! In addition Israel has stepped up its cross border clashes in Southern Lebanon and its tit for tat attacks on Iran. Meanwhile no one, not the UN, not the Pope, not the G7 have moved to check the Israelis on their aggression and warmongering.

The sleepwalk is turning into a trot. The pace is quickening towards more direct engagement and confrontation between the West and Russia. Yet the corporate media vigorously supports it all and spins it as: defending democracy, fighting Russia aggression and justified Israel defense rather than what it really is: war profiteering, corporate greed, immorality, genocide and ethnic cleansing.

We have seen the willingness of the US government to pour money into the Military Industrial Technology Security State sinkhole and this trend is not going to subside any time soon. In fact it will increase along with preparations for conscription, logistics, war gamesmanship and saber rattling. Look at all the joint military exercises the US/NATO axis and the Russians and Chinese are conducting. This is the equivalent of two dogs growling, barking and baring their teeth at each other before they actually start fighting. Sometimes the bluff works sometimes they end up fighting.

The misleadership in both US political parties are hellbent on war, they don’t even mention the word peace, and by Golly they are going to have their wars somewhere. Sadly unless there is a major repentance the trot will break out into a full sprint towards full blown war. We have to wake up and stop pretending not to know what is going on!

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 5:27 AM 0 comments

Are False Beliefs Setting Us Up For Destruction?

                                             Are False Beliefs Setting US Up For Destruction?

                                                                 Junious Ricardo Stanton

As we look around the world today we discover challenges to our reality, our belief systems and the values we profess to hold dear. America says it stands for freedom, justice, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness but as a global hegemon the US is directly responsible for massive human exploitation, suffering, privation, misery and death! These are the direct consequences of the American Empire’s greed, callousness and immorality. This hubris is pervasive yet because of ubiquitous mind control and brainwashing most Americans are not even aware this country is an imperialist giant. Most are oblivious to the fact America has a global network of military bases and spends more than several nations combined to maintain them. Somnambulant Americans think the almost eight hundred known foreign military and drone bases and many more top secret installations in seventy plus nations exist to protect freedom and democracy!

In addition to their military overreach the US is actively engaged in numerous proxy wars using intermediaries and entities like NATO they fund and equip to do their dirty work in places like Ukraine and Yemen. Ukraine is becoming a humongous sinkhole for US war profiteering and kickbacks in support of a corrupt Ukrainian government that is a boon for the US military industrial technology hydra. Their goal aside from making huge profits is to undermine Russia and bring that nation to heel. Recent decisions to allow Ukraine to escalate direct attacks on Russian soil using Western weaponry are not only idiotic they will have horrific consequences.

On the other hand the US misleadership finds itself in a conundrum due to its total support of an obvious ethnic cleansing campaign by Israel against the Palestinians, the real Semites of the region. The optics of this carnage belie Israel’s claim they are fighting a defensive war in an effort to secure release of Israeli hostages taken in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack; an attack which appears was allowed to happen by Israeli security forces so Israel could commence ethnic cleansing against the people of Gaza.

The US claims Israel is our only ally in the region, an ally who shares this nation’s democratic values. But is this really true? The reality is the United States is an oligarchy ruled by an elite group not ordinary citizens who represent and exercise the will of the people. A Princeton and Northwestern Universities study by Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page concluded the US is ruled by influential elites and special interest groups who set the agenda and policies for the government.

Election campaigns whose costs prohibit the average person from running for state, national and even some local public offices makes a mockery of the claim this is a government of the people by the people or for the people. Special interests, big money and the oligarchs actually control this country and set its policies. The executive, legislative and even judicial branches and their regulatory agencies have been captured, are beholden to and taken hostage by big money interests. Elections and voting merely provide the illusion we have a say in the governance process.

For example most rational people would opt to spend their hard earned tax dollars here at home rather than pouring trillions to prop up corrupt and genocidal governments that provide no benefit to us whatsoever while enriching defense contractors and warmongers to the detriment of humanity!

Israel is an apartheid state, none of the Ashkenazim who occupy the territory and rule the country are Semites. They are converts to Judaism who have marginalized other Jews who have a longer claim to the religion than they do. They are not the true descendants of the ancient Hebrew Israelites and Judeans.

Historically ancient Israel was never a powerful or significant entity in the region, it was always in the shadows of larger more powerful nations and empires like the Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians and Babylonians.

Evangelical Christians support Israel even though the Jews reject their Messiah because they believe the Ashkenazim are the Israelites of the Bible and they are Yahweh’s chosen people; who in some convoluted way through war, tribulation and upheaval will usher the return to earth of Christ! So they uncritically support the modern genocide in Palestine just like they go along with the Biblical stories of the Hebrew’s genocide and ethnic cleansing to expropriate the “Promised Land” from the indigenous peoples. They never question the narrative or ask why a supposedly all knowing, just god would order “his people” to do such a thing?

Meanwhile simultaneously the US is provoking China over Taiwan and the South China Sea island disputes among China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia. This is insane, nevertheless the misanthropes who run this nation seem hellbent on provoking a major war somewhere on this planet. Their hubris and psychopathy will be their ruin.

Our false beliefs are taking us down a slippery slope which could lead to a real Armageddon “end times” scenario. Unless saner heads prevail and this appears unlikely, the US and its acolytes will find themselves eyeball deep in multiple wars they cannot possibly win. Why is it no one sees this coming?

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 9:27 AM 0 comments

                                              Implications of the Lawfare Against Trump

                                                         Junious Ricardo Stanton

So lawfare is not new. What is lawfare you ask? Lawfare is defined as: the strategic use of legal proceedings to intimidate,, hinder or eliminate an opponent or adversary. Lawfare is used in many so called banana republics and authoritarian regimes to stifle opposition. Most astute open minded people, free thinkers and students of human nature know Donald Trump is a victim of Deep State or whatever you want to call it, warfare designed to keep him from effectively campaigning in the 2024 presidential election.

This is insane. How is it that Donald Trump was indicted by the New York D.A. and found guilty of on all counts paying “hush money” to a stripper/porn actor to keep her quiet about an affair when Stormy Daniels whose real name is Stephanie A. Clifford admitted in a documentary she accepted money from Trump years ago. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4544259-stormy-daniels-ook-trump-hush-money-because-fear/. I get it they are after Trump and charging him with using campaign funds to pony up the hush money was one way to go after him.

But come on, in the overall scheme of things this was nothing. My difficulty with all of this including the other civil and criminal charges lodged against Trump around the country is, all things considered, Trump is chump change. Donald Trump never lied us into illegal wars, or killed millions of civilians to boost his profile and keep the military industrial security state corporatist war machine humming merrily along. George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all waged undeclared wars on sovereign nations often based on lies and falsehoods yet not one of these misanthropes has been indicted, arraigned or prosecuted. Bush, I and II, Clinton and Obama ruined whole countries, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya yet nothing was done to right their wrongs or hold them accountable. Joe Biden is a career grifter, and warmonger who as VP was eyeball deep in Ukrainian corruption and kick backs, yet the media gives him an eternal pass. What’s wrong with this picture?!

In stark contrast Donald Trump ignited the ire of this powerful technocratic military security cabal by challenging US participation in NATO, threatening to reduce funding or pull out of this appendage of the US empire all together. Trump tried to take another approach dealing with Russia to end the rancor and mistrust but he was demonized for it. The warmongers went bonkers. Trump became persona non grata to the shadow government when he actually took the steps to defund the World Health Organization which was ostensibly created to promote global health and well-being; but in recent years has become a globalist agency to push their nefarious agenda they went nuts!

So now Trump has been convicted yet his immediate predecessors are walking around Scott free reaping huge rewards for their evil and warmongering. Is this justice? How do we as a sane people reconcile the fact past US presidents routinely waged wars, assassinated world leaders, plotted and executed the overthrow and collapse of numerous sovereign governments costing suffering and the lives of millions of our fellow human beings yet they have never been held accountable?! Meanwhile local and state governments go after Donald Trump on nickle and dime level charges.

I am no fan of Donald Trump, he is an insensitive narcissist and his economic policies proved to be a disaster. His trade wars with Canada, Mexico, the EU and China did not turn out well and caused major problems for American farmers, manufacturers and consumers. Despite his rhetoric he failed to reduce the US trade deficits or stop the outsourcing of jobs and capital flight. Trump bought into the COVID scam and his bogus Operation Warp Speed for repurposed inadequately tested mNRA injections is still reverberating negative consequences for people’s health but have been a boon for Big Pharma’s bottom line! The stimulus money accelerated the nation’s debt crisis which Biden’s policies have exacerbated.

I certainly am not advocating Trump get a free pass; what I am saying is, his predecessors should also be facing their day of reckoning either in the US or world court! Food for thought.

posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 4:43 AM 0 comments

Sleepwalking Into More War

Sleepwalking Into More War

Junious Ricardo Stanton

Over the past few months we’ve witnessed the United States collaboration with a brutal campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine specifically Gaza and Rafah. Israel’s heavy handed response to an Hamas attack which is extremely suspicious in terms of it being a total surprise to Israel security forces are indisputable war crimes. Denying civilians of Gaza, clean drinking water, cutting off electric power, blocking humanitarian aid and food, deliberately bombing hospitals and refugee shelters and the indiscriminate targeting of civilian infrastructure are crimes against humanity no matter what the pro-Zionist corporate media says! No amount of rationalization, obfuscating, disinformation and gaslighting are going to alter the fact Israeli ethnic cleaning campaign is a crime against humanity.

University students generated massive media coverage by their protests, demonstrations and their demands for peace and disinvestment from Israel are a stark contrast to the decidedly pro-Israeli legacy media’s unabashed support of the ongoing carnage.

However, the student demonstrations have taken the spotlight off of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine which is draining vital resources and taxpayer funds that could be better used here in America to rebuild outdated crumbling infrastructure, subsidize the construction of affordable housing and strengthen existing public safety nets.

Both Ukraine and Israel are siphoning critical resources but more importantly they are contributing to this nation's rapid degeneration into a mass consciousness of rabid militarism and all war all the time. We are destroying our minds and souls with incessant war profiteering and human carnage. We are validating Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1967 declaration,”the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, is my own government.” For his truth and pacifism King was murdered by a collaboration of government forces.

We have been down this road before yet the Biden administration and the whole congress are totally committed to the stupidity of supporting a corrupt Ukrainian regime unwilling to admit it is losing the war and has virtually no chance of turning the situation around. Nevertheless the US is not only spending exorbitant sums of taxpayer money we cannot afford, the US misleadership and their European allies and vassals are hellbent on keeping these wars going, eschewing peace negotiations and aggressively prodding and enabling the Ukrainian misleadership into attacking inside Russian territory using Western weapons! There are increasing calls by US and European politicians and NATO spokespersons for Ukraine to directly attack targets in Crimea and Russia.

Do these imbeciles actually think Russia is going to stand passively by and allow that to happen? I don’t think so. Is NATO that insane? Have they no shame? Are they that callous they don’t care about the global consequences of their decisions, or is their real agenda massive war, death and carnage? Based upon what we have seen the past year the Ukrainian war is a disaster which will not turn out well for Ukraine or NATO.

Simultaneously Israel is determined to wiping Gaza off the map and in a classic tail waging the dog scenario, Israel keeps the US and UK governments in its grip by using bribery, extortion, honey traps and the baseless canard of antisemitism to achieve their objectives. Thankfully college students recognize warmongering and genocide when they see it. Unfortunately too many of us older folks are too somnambulant to see what is going on and have allowed the media and the government to gaslight us into acquiescing to genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Where are the sane people, where are the good people, where are the people who see the road this nation is traveling will lead to escalating global disaster, slaughter, suffering and possible collapse? Have we been so cow-towed and punked by the warmongers we are unwilling to stand up for peace, be counted for doing what is right and having the courage of our convictions? Where are the people who worship the man who said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God”? Where are those who say they abhor violence, war and killing? When will they speak up?

We are sleepwalking into an expanded era of conflict, war and death. Will we wake up in time before it’s too late? The United Kingdom is planning to re-institute conscription, a mandatory national service for males 18 years old and up. Germany is reportedly considering conscription also. Is this a step towards forcing young men into military service? Will this spread to the other Five Eyes partners Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the US or other NATO members?

I don’t think conscription will go over well in the US, the military is already struggling to meet their quotas with a volunteer system. The only way it would fly is it used as a way to fast track immigrants to US citizenship. Unless we snap out of our dormancy we will find ourselves face to face with a real time war, not the proxy wars our leaders have been fighting.

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 5:58 AM 0 comments